In the early morning of June 18, 1950, at the Racecourse Execution Ground next to Taipei's Songshan Airport, an old man in his sixties said only one sentence: "Shoot me in the head!" He turned around and said nothing more. Subsequently, several crisp gunshots broke the pre-dawn tranquility, and the gunshots rang out, and the old man fell to the ground in response.
The next day, Taiwan's authoritative media published the following news: Chen Yi, a rebel thief, was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in accordance with the "Regulations on the Punishment of Rebellion (Amendment)" for dispatching cronies to instigate a rebellion.
At this point, the former Qing dynasty elder, the former supreme administrator of Taiwan and the chairman of Zhejiang Province, was killed by his own alumni and buried on Treasure Island.
Chen Yi, zi gongqia, number retired su, born in 1883 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Chen Yi was diligent and studious when she was young, familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, and wrote well. Chen Yi, who has a good family, was highly expected by her parents from an early age and went to Japan at the age of 19 to be gilded. At the Japanese Non-Commissioned Officer School, Chen Yi became acquainted with Jiang Ruiyuan, a fellow student from China, who later became Chiang Kai-shek.
After returning to China, Chen Yi participated in the Northern Expedition and met again with fellow fellow countryman Chiang Kai-shek, who was already a military commander at that time. This reunion between Chen Yi and Chiang Kai-shek is a two-way trip.
How to say? Chen Yi has changed masters several times in his life, and he has always looked for a powerful, powerful, and ambitious gold lord; for Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Yi's fluent Japanese and inextricable ties with Japan are exactly what he values and hopes to use.
The two hit it off immediately, and there was a feeling of seeing each other and hating the night. From July 1927, Chen Yi remained with Chiang Kai-shek as a military adviser until January 1934, when he was transferred to the chairmanship of Fujian Province. According to the usual practice, Chiang Kai-shek often entrusted his cronies with the heavy responsibility of the chairman of a province. Compared with Cheng Qian and Lu Han, who were appointed as provincial chairmen with their outstanding military achievements, Chen Yi's post as chairman of Fujian Province was really easier.
To write About Chen Yi, there is one person who has to mention that he is Tang Enbo.
When Chen Yi was transferred to Fujian, Tang Enbo was under the command of Chiang Kai-shek to conquer the north and south. Chen Yi knew Tang Enbo very well, and it was not an exaggeration to say that there was a grace of regeneration.
Tang Enbo graduated from the Japanese Non-Commissioned Officer School in 1926 and was a small alumnus of Chen Yi, but if it were not for Chen Yi's generosity, Tang Enbo would eventually be an incompetent field rough man.
In 1924, Chen Yi, as the commander of the First Division of the Zhejiang Army, sponsored Tang Enbo to study in Japan, and gave Tang 50 oceans a month to make living expenses, exempting him from worries. This act of kindness continued until Tombaugh returned to China in 1926. Later, Chen Yi also mated Wang Jingbaixu, a dry daughter who regarded her as a pearl in her hand, to Tang Enbo. Not only that, Chen Yi also recommended Tang Enbo to Chiang Kai-shek as a brigade commander together with Zhang Zhizhong.
Tombaugh
After a few years, Tang Enbo rose from a small soldier to a high position as a general. The future King of the Central Plains has begun to take shape at this time.
Tang Enbo's life and career are both complete, and they are inseparable from Chen Yi. Chen Yi had no biological children in his life, and Tang Enbo respected Chen Yi with the mentality of knowing the grace map. The two have been friends for many years and are in love with father and son.
After Chen Yi ruled Fujian for many years, Japan surrendered and Taiwan was restored. When it comes to the person to manage Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek first thought of Chen Yi. Taiwan was occupied by Japan for many years and was deeply influenced by all aspects of it, Chen Yi was proficient in Japanese and had a good understanding of Japan. As one of the few technocratic officials within the Kuomintang, Chen Yi was more focused on economic recovery and development than his military-strapped generals. More importantly, Chen Yi was quite proud of the literati, not greedy for money, not lustful, and did not like to form parties for personal gain, which was a clear stream within the Kuomintang at that time.
Against this background, in August 1945, Chen Yi stepped down to become the chief executive of Taiwan Province and the commander-in-chief of the security. The fact that the local officials held military power in their hands was enough to see Chiang Kai-shek's absolute trust in Chen Yi. However, it turned out later that it was not necessarily a wise move to have a man with no actual combat experience to combine military and political power.
Chen Yi was in charge of Taiwan for only 16 months when the "228 Incident" was triggered by a fight between law enforcement officers from the Monopoly Bureau and roadside vendors. What was originally a trivial matter in modern society continued to ferment and spread rapidly throughout the island. Chen Yi underestimated the social crisis caused by the people's livelihood problems on the island at that time, and handled it improperly, all because he did not understand the will of the people, and he supported the army and respected himself, and he had no fear.
Chen Yi inspected the Sun Moon Lake power plant
Chen Yi misjudged the situation and tried to deal with what he understood as a "provincial mob" in a simple and crude way. On the one hand, he exercised expedient measures and bowed to the committee representing the will of the people, and on the other hand, he secretly asked Chiang Kai-shek to reinforce by force. On March 8, the Nationalist 21st Division landed in the port of Keelung, and an unprecedented tragedy began. According to later official statistics from Taiwan, the number of civilian casualties reached 28,000 (excluding military and police deaths and missing persons). The largest civilian uprising in modern China shocked the world.
Afterwards, in the face of a river of blood, Chiang Kai-shek finally woke up. His first task in order to undo the impact is to find a scapegoat. As a result, Chen Yi was moved out as a shield. On May 11, 1947, Chen Yiyu, who had been dismissed from his post, returned home in Shanghai.
Chen Yi is 64 years old, according to the thinking of ordinary people, this is the age when you can tell the old man to return to his hometown. However, although Chiang Kai-shek was dissatisfied with Chen Yi's experience in Taiwan, he still did not think of abandoning him, and tang Enbo patted his chest to sponsor him, and the following year, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Chen Yi as the chairman of his hometown of Zhejiang Province.
Chen Yi's residence in Hangzhou is now the Zhejiang Provincial Tourism Bureau
Soon after Chen Yi arrived at his post, he received a message from Li Jishen. As the elders of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, Li Jishen and Chen Yi had a close personal relationship. When Chen Yi arrived in Zhejiang, the liberation of the whole country was already on the string, and political figures with a little insight could clearly understand the current situation and know how to advance and retreat. Chen Yi was a seasoned politician, who had endured many storms, so how could he not understand the dying state of the Kuomintang regime?
However, Chiang Kai-shek learned the lesson of Taiwan, and although He put Chen Yi in charge of Zhejiang, he did not give him military power and handed over the military power of Zhejiang to Tang Enbo, commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison. At this time, Chen Yi, under the guidance of Li Jishen, had secretly contacted the CCP and was ready to respond to the call at an appropriate time and surrender to the uprising.
Chen Yi has a new way out, and naturally cannot forget his treating Tang Enbo like a parent. On January 27, 1949, Chen Yi sent his nephew Ding Mingnan to Shanghai with a handwritten letter to visit Tang Enbo and urge him to open the Yangtze River ferry to welcome the People's Liberation Army across the river.
Chen Yi's letter is more obscure, but the meaning is very clear: he hopes that Tang Enbo will cooperate with him to emulate Fu Zuoyi and turn to the Communist camp.
To be honest, this letter was not completely untouched by Tang Enbo, according to Tang Enbo's subordinate Ji recalled, "Tang received this letter, and was very excited... It seems to be anxious, painful and uneasy, and there are hidden secrets that are difficult to say, and do not want to reveal..."
On the one hand, it is the same as the father and son, and on the other hand, the party-state reuses, Andom Enbo is very tormented. He knew that the decision at this time could change the fate of himself and Chen Yi, and even partially rewrite history, so he hesitated and made it difficult to make a decision.
So what kind of decision will Tombaugh make?
On January 30, Chiang Kai-shek received a letter photo from Chen Yi to Tang Enbo from Mao Renfeng, and it was none other than Tang Enbo who took the photo!
There is truth in the picture! Shocked and angry, Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered Chen Yi to be stripped of his post as chairman of Zhejiang Province and placed under house arrest.
On May 30, 1949, Chen Yi was escorted to Taiwan. Until this point, he did not realize that he would one day be put to death by Chiang Kai-shek. Tang Enbo did not think so, he thought that Chen Yi had just done one thing wrong, and it was no big deal to admit the mistake. Therefore, since Chen Yi was placed under house arrest, Tang Enbo has been looking for ways to restore his freedom.
If it is like for a person to be tormented by inner contradictions and struggles, Tang Enbo can certainly say that he is in tears at this time. He single-handedly sent Chen Yi to prison, but he naively wanted to rescue him from Chiang Kai-shek's hands, and even promised Chen Yi to send him to the end of his pension during the prison visit.
What did Chen Yi think at this time?
The elderly Chen Yi has changed his mentality, and at this time, he is far from the political talent who points out the country and is sleek and clever. Even if he lost his freedom, he didn't feel like he had made any big mistakes. The letter to Tang Enbo, which he thought was well-worded and affectionate, was not wrong, but what he did not know was that it was a violation of Chiang Kai-shek's great taboo.
Chen Yi once said to the adopted daughter who came to visit:
"I'm not doing this for myself, I'm already so old, I'm not going to come out and do things in the future. I don't understand the Communist Party's set of practices, I only protect the millions of people in Jiangnan from disaster. The peaceful liberation of Peiping is a good example, so that you young people can live a good life in the future. ”
Chen Yi, who rose up in the chaos of war, eventually tired of war and chose to seek peace and well-being for all the people, which shows his patriotism.
Unfortunately, he will ultimately be held accountable for what he has done.
After Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, he originally planned to wait for an opportunity to "restore the mainland." In Taiwan, however, Chiang Kai-shek discovered that the aftermath of the "228 Incident" of the past years had not subsided. In other words, Taiwan's native residents regard him and Chen Yi as the culprits of the hill.
Chiang Kai-shek wanted Chen Yi to come forward and confess his guilt, but at this time, Chen Yi's attitude was always tough and refused to bow his head. After weighing it up again and again, Chiang Kai-shek chose [zhái] to clean himself up, conformed to the will of the people, and finally decided to take Chen Yi to the guilt.
Contrary to the general public opinion orientation on the island, the Communist Party of China issued a document on January 9, 1980, based on the positive performance of Chen Yi's release of more than 100 patriots during his time in Zhejiang, posthumously recognizing Chen Yi as a "patriot who sacrificed his life for the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people." This is the highest posthumous recognition of a high-ranking Kuomintang official besides the patriotic generals of the uprising. Not only that, Chen Yi's relatives and secretaries who remained in the mainland were treated kindly under the care and scrutiny of the new Chinese leaders.
If Chen Yi knew about Izumi, he was also slightly comforted.